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HMS Albuera, North Sea, 52 dgs 10 min North 3 dgs 16 min East, 9 October 1948 The operator fiddled with the cathode ray controls. "It makes no difference, every sector is the same." The Chief Petty Officer picked up the telephone to the bridge "Direction room to bridge, we are still being jammed. Yes Sir, we've tried but it made no difference. No, we can't pick out any echos. Yes, Sir, right away." The CPO hung the phone up and walked across to another console and flicked some switches, bringing...

7 October Reports from Paraguay indicate the situation is still tense but so far no violence has erupted and no major political shifts have occurred in policy. Luis Torres, the leader of the National Peoples Party was sworn in as the new Prime Minister this morning. 12 October In Paraguay, news reports indicate that the National Peoples Party and the Catholic People's Party have formed an alliance voting bloc in the Chamber of Deputies. General Vasquez has been nominated as President but this ha...

12 October The Topical debate programme Any Questions? is broadcast on the BBC Home Service for the first time today. There is a rule that no questions can be asked on topics that have been discussed in the Houses of Parliament during the last two weeks. The first prototype Gloster Meteor F.Mk.VIII fighter, serialled VT130, made its maiden flight today. This improved Meteor has an extended nose by 30 inches to improve directional stability and a new tail unit to maintain the centre of gravity. A...

10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London, Saturday 9 October Attlee had seen the morning papers and slammed them down on the baize-covered desk. He picked up the red telephone in front of him and spoke to the operator to make his call. "Morning James. I trust you've seen the papers?" On the other end of the phone, the Home Secretary Chuter Ede picked up his copy of The Times, "Morning Clem. It take it you mean the Channel business? Yes i have." "How did the press get this past the D-Notice Committee...

The English Channel, 18:20, Friday 8 October 'Tankard Four to Mallet, at angels twenty, heading oh-eight-four. On station.' Flt Lt. Charles Brown clicked off his transmit button as the Mosquito cruised at altitude. The sun had just dipped below the horizon as night fell, to his left the coastline of Essex stretched out, a line of blobs of light outlined the towns along it. Beside him his navigator PO Ronnie 'Tinker' Bell was fumbling with the controls of the Mark IX RDF set, his face pressed to ...

Fighter Command HQ, RAF Uxbridge, 16:00, 8 October The situation was becoming busy, tentative long-range Chain Home reports indicated a build-up across the Channel and new formations kept coming in and out of range, eventually formating along the French side of the Channel. The controllers had never seen much like this before, over a hundred fighters were airborne. Air Marshall William Elliot, the AOC Fighter Command had been called in from a meeting at Whitehall. The duty staff explained the si...

Hey Hoo, good to hear from you. The option for Talons is still there, sadly as you can probably see things are very quiet here these days so the scope is less than it was. Even if we could get ten teams together it would be a major accomplishment. The info is most useful though.

The English Channel, 14:30pm, Friday 8 October Flight Sergeant Paul Adams in the dorsal turret of the Buccaneer had a good view of the Ouragans sweeping down at speed, unsure whose's fighters they were at first he warned his skipper, Flt Lt. Simon Greatrex that the fighters were coming in. They shot past and Greatrex adjusted his throttles, catching a glimpse of the roundels as the fighters swept past. "Looks like they're Frenchies skipper." Adams reported. Greatrex turned to port slightly and d...

Friday 8 October The destroyers HMS Vigo, Albuera, Barrosa and Mons of 6th Destroyer Flotilla were shepherding the returning ships at a discrete distance as they headed east out of the English Channel and into the North Sea. Overhead three BCAC Buccaneer GR.Mk.I reconnaissance aircraft from 42 Sqn at RAF Thorney Island were flying a looping patrol pattern. The Admiralty was carefully watching, not that they expected any maritime incidents but the opportunity to exercise their own training was to...

5 October In a radio broadcast this morning General Horacio Vasquez spoke to the Paraguayan nation. He explained that the unstable government Prime Minister Juan Natalicio González which had failed to the deal with the Marxist revolutionaries who hold power across a swath of the rural areas of the nation had to be removed in order to ensure that law and order could be reestablished. The Chamber of Deputies was barricaded by soldier but it appears that Luis Torres, the leader of the National Peop...

5 October The Air Force has ordered 60 Fokker F.25 Promotor aircraft for the communications role with removable dual-controls and quick-change capability for the air ambulance role. This single-engined, twin-boomed, four-seat monoplane with a pusher engine is a development of the C.XIII observation aircraft. When being used as an air ambulance aircraft it can carry a patient on a stretcher, which is loaded through a hatch in the aircraft's nose. Production is carried out by Aviolanda under sub-c...

4 October Brothers Adrie and Wuf van Ginkel have founded a small business in their hometown of Ederveen. Their company will refurbish ex-military trucks for onward sale the construction industry and carry out other modifications as required by customers. 15 October The Dutch company Chemical Factory Naarden N.V. (CFN) which manufactures flavours, fragrances, antioxidants for food preservation of food and Vitamin C has opened a factory in Belgium to increase production.

5 October Delegates to a conference organised by Sir Julian Huxley at Fontainebleau agree to formation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 6 October Sir Henry Gurney is appointed High Commissioner of Malaya. 10 October The Hoover Company today opened a new factory for the mass production of washing machines at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

1 October At the AFNE shipyard in Bahia Blanca history was made today as the Defence Minister Vice Almirante (ret). Juan Perez Benedicto Hood oversaw the ceremonial laying of the first keel plate of the first aircraft carrier to be designed and built in Argentina. The Project 721 design is a modern design displacing 16,000 tons and carrying a capable airgroup. The ship, likely to be named Libertad, will complete before 1951 and will replace the old Italian carrier Avispón. Possible refits for th...